Thanks again Rob and congrats on your purchase. Did you buy any more?
I believe lot 22 was sold at autumn sale for not much more but did have steer calf at foot
unfortunately it was the coombs cattle I was interested in last time but just got to autumn sale a bit late as they sold first I think the bull was sold at autumn sale as well as I thougt he was ok about same price this time
did you see shetland heifers sell?
Monica Waltho (01536)
(see Smallwood Dexters on facebook)
Staffordshire
We bought 3 heifers & a cow & calf, all nice animals, I think. Prices seemed low, compared to last Spring, until it got to anything I wanted but I only had so much in the kitty & didn't want to bid everything up & run out early. I think there were fewer buyers this time.
Sadly the meat man picked quite a few up very cheap. I just can't understand why people let animals go at less than their meat price. The bull for instance would have fetched at least 650 - 700 straight to slaughter and that is where he has gone, same for several of the larger heifers.
Until more people put reserves onto their cattle, they will often end up in the meat chain, and if this is going to be the case, surely it would be better to have the extra pounds ones self.
The quality was much better this year, but it is noticeable that anything shown on a halter usually makes more money. I think the exception was probably the little dun who clearly did not wish to be there and made it plainly obviously, but still made good money.
However I'm glad some of the cows and calves have got nice homes.
Maybe I am a softy but i would never send any of my oldies to an auction.
thanks again Rob
seems a shame the bull went for meat as he was well bred perhaps horns (if i remember him correctly) put people off the cows that had calves by him last year at the sale were good
Yes Ann I couldnt sell my oldies at auction dont like selling any of mine after a certain age anyway rather know their end
Monica Waltho (01536)
(see Smallwood Dexters on facebook)
Staffordshire
The highest price animal was No.26, a black short legged show heifer at 430gn
The bull (yes, he did have horns) fetched 560gn in the Autumn sale, costing the vendor 160gn, while the cow, No.22 made 300gn in Autumn with her calf at foot, so the 5m steer cost him 20gn + fees.
The market seems to be clear that there are far too many breeding bulls available privately for the breeding market to take any more. As for non-breeders, there's a clear price incentive to castration with steers achieving over £100 a head more. It also stops non-pedigree breeders buying a cheap bull to cover their cows & should help increase the price of pedigree breeding bulls.
I was pleased to see that York have taken on the idea of weighing the cattle in the rare breeds sale, unfortunately they didn't make this information available in the ring - just doing that could easily increase prices as it gives you a base-line to work on, rather than naturally underestimating the value when you're judging by eye alone. One thing that it did flag up, to me, too is that my cheapest purchase was actually my most expensive (in terms of meat) and my most expensive was second cheapest)!
I don't know who the meat man is, but as long as he turns up he's doing the breed a service and without him the prices would be much worse. Unless breeders can be persuaded to either stop selling or start buying cattle, there's always going to be bargains. Whilst reserves are important (if you're not prepared to take an animal back home with you, you can't expect anyone else to), a sale that is full of high reserve animals isn't necessarily going to attract more buyers, and for those who do go, high reserves are as offputting to attending future sales as lots of lots not forward.
I'd like to see my breed achieving better prices in the ring, but collectively we are so so terrible at promoting the breed and sales. I was looking for weeks before this sale for any kind of promotion of it and the only thing I found were three ads on Twitter from the YLC, RBST & the York Support group and on the Northern Dexters website. The only way I knew that there were going to be any Dexters entered in this sale were the three mentions made on this forum. I know you're average Dexter keeper is not necessarily au fait with social media (I know as I resisted Twitter for ages because I didn't understand it, and then when I finally did force myself to get my head round it, I wished I'd done it years ago) but they are great tools to drum up interest in events and stay in touch with peers up & down the country. It doesn't have to be the individual breeders doing the promotion either - it's very cheap for a society representative to really spread the word, and particularly good pictures of Dexters, before a sale to make sure the ringside is filled with people who have some money to spend.
I go to York because I'm just up the road and it's my local auction market but I noticed a marked difference in the prices of animals between those I chose to bid on & those I didn't, which suggests to me that it wouldn't take many more serious bidders (I estimate another 3) to attend to raise prices to what most breeders would feel worthwhile, so we need to get the word out for the forthcoming sales in the Autumn. The Dexter is worth shouting about, afterall, but make sure we emphasize value, as opposed to cheapness.
I do agree the publicity was poor for this sale didnt get email from York about catalogue until Saturday morning (I am on their mailing list).We also bought 5 cattle at Autumn sale so you would think might be worth encouraging to come again. Had seen catalogue on friday but that was just as they came available online which really is not soon enough for buyers to see what is for sale.
As you say you live just up the road but for myself its 2.5 hrs away and you get there and cattle are not forward and nowadays price of travelling has to be taken into consideration.
As for steers selling better than bulls I would have bid on the young bulls as in past have bought 'steers' only to get them home and find they not been castrated properly and nothing can be done about it at least I can get them properly castrated. Luckily the 2 heifers I bought were not incalf but that can be another joy of Rare Breed auctions as they tend to be inexperieced.
As for the bull I think if he had been advertised on here or FG or preloved at £600 he would have sold easily.
I do think breeders/sellers do have to be more procactive themselves and as you say a good photo helps either on here or other media sites especially as so many people use these now
Monica Waltho (01536)
(see Smallwood Dexters on facebook)
Staffordshire
My problem is with the date. I'm normally still in the midst of lambing and another 3 weeks to go before cattle off to summer grass. Fodder supplies rapidly running out so the last thing I need at the moment is more mouths to feed. A shame as in a month's time there'll be grass to spare.
That's a similar problem for me - we could do with a monthly sale really to ease cash & cow flow. This week was a very expensive one for us and although I really wanted another 8 heifers, I only got half as many. It would have been nice to get them straight out to grass (it's just starting to come now) but the fencer fiasco means they've had to go into the shed - I've resorted to ordering a new fencer though, as there's no sign of the couriers with the ebay special - that'll teach me.
N.E. Dexter group members are alway able to promote their animals FOC on our website, if more people joined and used it to sell their animals locally we would maybe get a better price for our animals. However you do need to take good photos and make sure your animals are looking their best.
